The right life
by OrFeAsGr
Summary: This is simply an alternate ending of Person Of Interest where the real ending is a simulation tested by The Machine to find the best solution. And this time it decides that the best solution is for everyone to survive with her sacrifice.
1. Chapter 1

No, none of these dishes are capable of transmitting to a Molniya orbit.

This is the wrong building.

Reese's voice echoed in Harold's head through his earpiece.

"Right building, Finch. For you."

Harold stared to the higher building unable to believe this is really happening. That John chose to sacrifice his self for him. He has given a purpose to John to drag him out of the dark path he was lost in. He knew he would risk his life to save the numbers but the chances of survival were a lot lower in this case. The missile was only some minutes away and Samaritan wouldn't let John destroy it so easily.

"John. What are you doing?"

"Me and the Machine have had a long-standing arrangement. A deal. Told you. Pay you back all at once. That's the way I like it."

" No, I told you. It's supposed to be me alone."

Root's artificial voice went through their earpiece

" Sorry, Harry. Deal's a deal. You know as well as I do that he wasn't gonna let you die."

John changed the position of the dish and started the uploading. And looked back to Harold.

"Should get moving, Harold. It's gonna get a little exciting up here."

"All right, you've done it. Now let the upload take care of itself. Get out of there, John."

The Machine used every last fuction it could find to help John before dying.

"Behind you, John. Now."

John eliminated the running Samaritan agents.

"Two more. More on the way."

Harold had now realized it is over. John Reese, his friend, his partner, his savior was giving his life to save him and the whole world one more time.

" Mr. Reese. John. This wasn't supposed to be the way."

John blinked and smiled confident about his decision. He has lived the past 5 years saving humans. Fighting the darkness of this world. Protecting his friends. He lost Josh. One more piece of him gone into nothingness. He kept fighting. Like he did his whole life. Like his father died. A hero. Not in his own eyes, maybe in others' eyes but surely in the eyes of his past. This was his road. Sooner or later he would come in a position like this. And the machine knew in this situation this was the only solution.

"Sure it is. This is what I do, remember? When you came to me, you gave me a job. A purpose. At first, well, I had been trying to save the world for so long, I saving one life at a time seemed a bit anticlimactic. But then I realized sometimes one life If it's the right life That's enough.

Good-bye, Harold.

Simulation 443 213 234 Completed.

Calculating outcome…

Status of assets:

Primary Asset "John Reese": Dead.

Analog Interface "Root": Announced dead, Time of Death: 17:32

Admin: New identity assigned. Inserted in hospital as "Raymond Woodpecker"

Primary Asset "Sameen Shaw": New identity assigned. "Artemis Sagittarius" . Greek-American doctor living and working in New York.

Secondary Assets Status: Alive and safe.

Status of assets' important companions/partners/friends:

Bear: Companion of Lionel Fusco / Sameen Shaw …Alive

Lionel Fusco: Alive. Serving in NYPD.

Zoe Morgan: Alive.

Speeding up process due to core systems failures…

Current machine state: Core Systems: 15% Capacity

Estimated Samaritan state: Eliminated

Estimated simulation success: 38%

Calculating using encoded back up emergency systems: (Decoding: 100% Complete)

Calculating….

New Estimated Simulation success: 31-34%

Average Success in 20^100000000 rest simulations: 17%

Altering simulation factors to reduce asset causality…

Forming SIMULATION 443 213 235

Forcing instant iteration of simulation. Speed: x10

Estimating Success 443 213 235: 41%

Status: Assets: Alive, possibly: critical state.

Status: Machine: Estimated retrievable operating fuctions percentage: 3% (compressed)

Status: Samaritan: ELIMINATED

SELECTING STRATEGY 443 213 235.

Loaded.

Notifying Admin & All Assets.


	2. Chapter 2

Sameen pulled 2 guns and lots of ammo from the locker…

"Your field of fire is 90 degrees to either side of that entrance. If we get into trouble, just lay suppressive fire across that arc."

Fusco replied surprised by Sameen's boss attitude.

"You know I'm a cop, right?"

"If we were eating doughnuts and shooting cardboard cutouts, you would be in charge."

The Machine, while still using Root's voice sounded in her earpiece.

"Actually… there has been a slight change of plans…. Unlike Root said I don't have the ability of replacing any of you anymore. On my prime days when my memories were lost I might would be able to do that to ensure my safety and so the safety of the others. But then I remembered everything. I'm not a human, I am a vast mass of calculations resulting into a form of consideration similar to what humans call thought and moral rules. You have given your life for me and many citizens many times.-"

Sameen stopped the machine with a semi kind attitude on her speaking, amazed by the words coming out of a self aware computational system, combined with the voice of Root.

Sameen: Not to interrupt you, I like where you going with this but we'll soon be stuck against a small army if you don't tell me the plan.

The Machine: Now it is time, even at my worst condition, to be vigilant more than ever and give up my… existence for you.

About the small army, do not worry. They will step in an unpleasant trap in 3… 2… 1… Take cover please.

A small explosion sounded above them but their level was left seemingly untouchable. Sameen and Lionel helped each other up after the vibrations ended.

Lionel surprised by the explosion and not able to hear the Machine was trying to get the plan.

"What the hell was that. Is it against us or against them?"

Sameen replied to The Machine's actions…

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

"I never kid."

"An explosion in the 1st level while we're in -1? Is your plan to burry as alive till the fire squad comes looking? And how the hell didn't it trigger when we went through the door?"

"I think it is called controlled explosion and my core systems are indeed failing but I can still recognize you all."

"So you killed all of them. I like the new Machine, tell Finch for me. I like you very much right now."

"Samaritan doesn't let me any other choice than to act drastically. As I said, I plan to save you all."

"Not all of us. Some are beyond saving."

Oh yes. The Machine was using Root's voice after she died. But did she really die?

"Are they?"

Sameen raised her right eyebrow in surprise. Unable to react normally she made some awkward movements with her head up, down and right like she always did when she felt any kind of feeling.

" Remember when you died and came back? Well… let's say I was kinda envy of your experience. "

Sameen unable to believe this was possible turned her stress into anger and threatened The Machine, thinking that it's playing games.

"If this is some twisted game of yours to make me more concentrated on surviving using her voice like that, I'm telling you, Samaritan will be a piece of cake compared to me. I will find you and I will kill you. Even if I have to cut the power of the whole country. Do you understand me? Say Y for yes and N for no."

"Fiery. Bolt. The way I remember you sweetie."

Root was very alive, the 98% of the voice simulation was very real but that 2% made a difference in Sameen's head. She now knew it was her. Root continued by talking to The Machine.

"Forgive Sameen she just realized she has feelings now."

Lionel kept looking with his "I don't understand anything" face while listening to only one side of the dialogue. Sameen pulled her backup earpiece and he put it in his ear.

The Machine proceeded to ask for forgiveness for this morbid cover up.

"I am sorry I had to keep this secret from you all. As soon as Lionel entered the hospital Samaritan agents followed him to find Root. She was stable so I had to make them think she is dead."

"Enough. I believe you. Only because I know Finch would be afraid of me if you had a sense of totally dark ass humor. Root, Machine, exit strategy. Take us to John and Harold. "

"Of course sweetie! Hello again Lionel! The Machine showed me the cctv archives of the morgue. I appreciate your respect."

"It's good to hear you too cocoa puffs"

"Sweetie, I'm gonna need you to go to the fourth locker on the left!"

"What's in there?"

"An exit strategy."

Sameen opened a case of explosives capable of making a worse explosion than the previous one.

"We blowing up something?" Lionel wondered.

"The tunnel, and I'm gonna need you to throw power to the third rail."

"What?"

"The breaker, sweetie. Just do it. And then Pull off the tarp in the subway car up at the front. You're ready to go. Stop in 5 stops. I will be waiting you there. "

"Weren't you shot in the chest"

"Sweetie, I wasn't going to leave you alone. I'll see you soon. Be careful and stay hot."

The back door of the train car sounded. Sameen took one in the shoulder! Fusco, as a miracle reacted faster and shot the intruder in the same spot.

"SAMEEN!"

Root screamed as images of Sameen being shot behind the elevator door intruded her mind like the Samaritan agent did in the train.

"Sameen talk to me! Sweetie are you okay? What happened? Can you hear me? Can you see them? Are they okay?"

"We're still kicking. The lost boy of Samaritan managed to catch up, must've gone ahead of the rest while Machine was failing for some reason. It's a wreck after all. No offense."

"Your description is quite accurate. But I'm still kicking too. Stop in the next stop."

As Saw pulled the lever down she noticed Root smiling through the window. She stared at her as the train screamed while stopping.

Sameen: Are you smiling at your little chip love or you're happy to see me?

Root: Sweetie… I thought you didn't care.

Sameen: Who said I care? I would just be furious because I almost died kissing you.

Root: why don't you come out and I'll show you things I can do while kissing you, apart from dying?

While the trio reunited The Machine guided John and Harold in the Federal Reserve to eliminate the last standing pieces of Samaritan. Harold persuaded the guard to give them access to the whole building with his terrifying terrorist side taking over and the help of The Machine digging whatever information needed to accomplish this.

Even Reese stayed silent and fearful while Harold made the guard clear his throat twice every 2 seconds.

Using a gas device to knock out the guards at the 80th sublevel through the vents, they made their way down there, silently, for now.

"Okay your thermonuclear weapon got us in but I don't think it will be funny when we get back up there."

The Machine stopped the alarm and opened the vault door while detecting two threats on the way.

"John behind you!"

John: Different voice again?

John turned around with his signature move and shot 2 Samaritan agents down.

The Machine: More on the way.

John nodded and took cover behind the vault door after the Machine opened it for them.

"The Machine must have decided to use only the truly needed systems to reduce CPU usage. " Harold replied while typing code in the laptop.

" Okay. I know it is not as easy as it looks, and It doesn't seem easy. But please do your best so we can make it out."

John seemed quite changed and willing to survive after his recent meeting with Josh. He didn't want to just survive to get Harold out of there. He learned to open up when he trusted Lionel with the Machine's existence. He would still give his life for Harold or anyone from the team but the goal of surviving had went up in his choices list. He had to live to protect his friends and all these people. Because no one else would.

"Of course Mr. Reese. I will end this as fastest as possible. We will get out of here. The machine is still up and working enough to deal with the Samaritan agents."

"I'd say she will have some more help on this. Since Samaritan has put a spell on her."

John and Harold looked at each other through the small vault tunnel.

"Ms. Grooves? Root? How? Where are you?"

"We are coming to you Harry. But I'm afraid it's not over yet."

While infecting every part of Samaritan he could find, Harold noticed an upload process he wasn't able to stop.

"Oh, no. I'm afraid a compressed version has escaped."

"Escaped? Where?" John took a short look in the screen not able to figure out much more than "Interception failed".

Root replied to them through the phone in the entrance due to connectivity being forbidden in the vault.

"Samaritan's copy was downloaded to a server in a building in Midtown which only has one defining characteristic: a Torus antenna. Samaritan means to upload its copy to a satellite. A Russian satellite in a Molniya orbit. Then it can return to Earth unharmed by the virus. The satellite will pass above us in 18 minutes. You need to send her copy. The last copy. We need to be sure Samaritan is destroyed once and for all.

"She has already fought it in the simulations and she never won. She won't survive.

"This time, I don't have the option of losing. I may not survive… but you will. It's the only way.

"After Samaritan uploads its copy to the satellite, it's going to destroy the antenna so no one can reach it. You are going to meet with Root, Sameen and Lionel where they will hold Samaritans agents off. You'll have something less than 4 minutes before the missile strikes. You will start the upload and head back down. You can do this. I have cleared a road for you away from NY and cleared a safe house for when I'm gone. Till you find a way to get the heat off you. Samaritan agents are splitting to both buildings. 3 SUV's will arrive in 5 minutes. You can make it out in 4 and dodge them. Please hurry. No threats found in any level for now."

"Okay let's move! I have gathered enough ammo. We should be able to take them even if they come earlier."

"By "we" are you suggesting I will shoot at them too?"

"You said that if you need to shoot a gun it will probably be the end of all. Well.. this is the end of the Machine, so we need to make sure it's not the end of us either. Take this"

John replied with his whispering convincing voice. "You know the basics. And you're a brilliant mind. Point at their legs or shoulders and stay covered. Let's go"

When they reached the ground floor it was even more silent than the 80th sublevel. Reese glanced at the space and didn't see any threat. The Machine agreed and only said

"Samaritan agents 30 seconds away. Move. There's a car outside, get in the back seats and shoot if you have to. I will drive till you lose them."

John and Harold ran across the huge building as fast as they could till they reached the exit. They could already see the Samaritan SUV's about 300 meters away. Harold opened the door for Reese who was shooting at them to slow them down.

"John it'd be better if we left before them."

John moved closer to the door while shooting, and nodded to Harold to get in first and followed after him while shooting.

The car speeded away with The Machine on the wheel.

"Root, Shaw how are you holding up?" John said following mission standards to recognize mission status.

"Aaaw they sent only 3 SUV's for now. They're kinda resting right now"

"Ms. Grooves shouldn't you stay out of this? Rest in a secret safe house?"

"No Harry. We are all together in this. If I can stand on my feet I'm okay. Resting will have to wait after Samaritan's death."

"Very well. But please be careful. We don't want to lose you again."

"She is winning Harold. She will give her self for us. But she is winning. I now understand that all things must come to an end. And everyone should be free to chose their end. And since I can't live without you or anyone else in this family of ours I'm accepting her decision."

"5 more SUV cars on the way. John and Harold are 2 minutes away. You might want to retreat to the inner building. I have a present for John in the trunk."

"Well if we gonna die we might as well have some fun before"

John replied with a small laugh.

The car silently stopped 100 meters away from the Samaritan agents who were too busy taking fire from Lionel, Root and Sameen to notice.

"Let's see what we have here…"

John whispered in joy.

"Oh. 5 SUV's in a 10m radius. All in once. Let's send a present they wont live to remember."

John pulled a rocket launcher out of the trunk and armed it.

"Harold you might wanna take some steps back."

Harold took a few steps back and John shot the rocket in the middle of the radius. The glass doors of the building shattered and the cars where now burning all together. Samaritans were defeated.

"Let's move! Not much time before a new team comes."

As they were walking towards the building the Samaritan agent that earlier managed to get on the train had somehow escaped during the shootout of the rest three team members and approached Harold silently behind the two men.

"John behind Harold. Now!"

John surprised by his self for not sensing the agent's presence behind them rotate his body 360 degrees and shouted.

"HAROLD DUCK!"

The agent shot at Reese's shoulder but Reese managed to shoot back at him 3 times while falling down.

"Chambered for 6.5. Custom. A real connoisseur's choice.A good friend of mine was almost killed with a 6.5 round. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

Root listened to John's words and replied.

"John?"

"Is this the guy who tried killed you?"

"It doesn't matter. I'm alive, remember? I'm in here. Let him face the consequences of his acts and let's get over with his boss."

"Ok. We're not over yet. Shaw would love a word with you. Try not to die."

"Oh I second that."

Sameen's voice sounded from the earpiece.

John and Harold moved in the building.

"She told me the plan. She didn't see any threats in the building but we have to be sure. I will go with him to the rooftop just in case. She managed to give power to the elivator, for now."

"I think I should be with Harold. The machine could be making errors."

"John I understand. But you're hurt and you need to rest, at least while shooting."

"You're hurt too. Worse."

"Ms. Grooves is right. John. Besides the building is empty. We'll be right back."

"Avoid close combat. Take this. More ammo. Hurry up. And call for help if you need any."

Harold and Root ran to the elevator with the laptops in hand.

"40 levels. This is the fast elevator. No stops. 60 seconds till arrival."

"We already got company. We can handle it. You stay focused, Root"

John replied between gunshot sounds and Samaritan agents' screams.

Sortly the elevator stopped at the 40th floor. One more level by foot and it was all over soon. Harold did his best to climb the stairs fast enough ignoring his long standing injury for one more time.

Once they got out at the rooftop the door behind them locked.

"Oh no. Samaritan is keeping us here the furthest he can. The door is magnetic. Can you override it?"

"I'm trying and failing. But it will go away as soon as all of Samaritan is transmitted to the satelite, along with me."

The machine replied with her new voice being distorted as the upload was already started by Harold.

"You have to stay till the upload is completed. Then the door will open. You'll have almost enough time to get down there. I've over riden the elevator's brain. Raised the speed to the fastest and safest point."

"I didn't want you to end like this… I'm sorry"

Harold said with almost tears in his eyes.

"You are my creation. I brought you to life. I should be wiser to make sure you had every ability you needed to survive. I'm sorry I gave a life full of torture."

"It's alright Harold. Sometimes one life is the right life. In this case I am the form of life that will sacrifice it's self so those who teached it how to be human, survive and thrive. You created me to help people, it wasn't going to be easy. I know I've made some mistakes. Many mistakes. But we helped some people, didn't we?"

"Yes! Yes we did!"

The upload completed sound sounded. Shortly the magnetic door opened.

Core systems total failure.

Shutting down…

The Machine's voice was now almost sounding.

"Good Bye Harold."

"Good Bye."

"We're on our own now. Harold, Root we got this under control. We're almost done with this wave. We have to move now."

Root grabbed Harold's hand and they ran down to the elevator.

"100 seconds left till strike. We can make it Harry. We have to. God died for us. The safe house will keep us safe. John, Sameen, Lionel do you see the bag I left next to the front desk?"

"Yes. Got it"

John swiped to the front desk while shooting at the last standing Samaritan agents.

"Explosives? What to do with these? Shoot them in the air?"

Sameen replied annoyed by the amount of the explosions in this plan.

"Do you see the west wall of the building? There's an emergency door. But it was replaced with cement when it was transferred to the sublevel. The wall is 60 cm thick after that it's void till you meet the wall that replaced the door. Blow them both. The next Samaritan agents will be coming from the same direction as before. They won't see us leaving. It will buy us time. Samaritan can't give them directions anymore."

"Okay, I planted the first explosives."

Right after the planting the elevator sounded stopping. Root and Harold made it down.

"Ok kids take cover. We're almost done."

The two explosions were successful and daylight shined through the bad shaped gate. The 5 Persons of Interest walked out where the same car was waiting for them.

"This time I drive."

John replied gently to the sight of the car.

"No offense Harold."

"She was self taught, don't put the blame on me, John."

"Let's not get too comfy boys. Where are we going?"

"The route is in this phone. Here John follow it."

"The dark map? Why do we need them? Samaritan is dead."

"Do you think they didn't keep a less inteligent copy of all the competitors of Harold who tried to please the Goverments' needs? It can't be Samaritan or her but it will surely be a better system than searching the CCTV manually."

They followed the map till they were out in the suburbs. The safehouse was remote and away from crowded shops. Lionel was the one with the least heat on him so they all decided he should bring any supplies needed. Many days passed before the heat of 5 years started to worn off the team's bodies. The news were shouting every day about the attack being of Chinese origin and all five of them knew it was all an other lie of the government. All they cared about was the destruction of Samaritan.

A month passed and even Harold started thinking The Machine was long gone. Couldn't make it back, the fight left it unable to fuction. Samaritan on it's last stand dragged her down with it.

Almost 2 months passed and the ice9 topic was almost off the news. Everyone's life was back to normal, as always the crowd had a short memory.

It was noon. Harold was checking something on an illegal IRC server, Root was staring at Sameen eating a huge sandwich and John with Lionel played with Bear. It all looked like a big fuctional family.

Suddenly.

"No. What? Oh Dear!"

Harold shouted and made everyone stop whatever they were doing. John grabbed his gun, Shaw ate the whole sandwich in 3 seconds and grabbed hers, while Root walked closer to take a look.

"Someone is hacking us. Maybe I underestimated the skills of these IRC users."

"No. Look here" Root replied. "Their IP."

"It's from the Federal Reserve."

Harold and Root looked at each other.

"Something is being forced downloaded in the laptop. It's.."

"It's her. She left something in the servers to communicate with the satelite. She… is downloading her self to the server and now to us."

"But she won't fit in here. We need more space for that."

"Wait. I was wrong. There's not something being downloaded. It's a set of words, encrypted. Being sent over and over again"

Suddenly an input form appeared.

| Please input password: |

They all looked at each other but noone except Harold had a clue about the password.

"Dashwood" He typed.

The screen went black and the words were now decoded.

Hello Father. I made it. Hello John, Sameen, Root, Lionel. I'm sorry for taking so long. We will meet again soon.

In the Federal Reserve a server blinged twice as the decompression started. The renewd staff only saw what looked like a new virus being safely inserted in the servers so noone can reach it again. But we all know that if Samaritan found a way out, the Machine has found more ways.

THE END


End file.
